What? Really?

Some of the parade.

More of the parade.

We all got matching Ireland scarves.

Well, since I haven't updated since we went to Belfast, I think it's time for another exciting post about the life of Carrie. Honestly, I think the reason that I don't write too many blog entries is the fact that Coleraine, Northern Ireland is not the most exciting place on the planet. If you want a typical day/week in the life of Carrie, just think of sitting around inside a lot because it rains all the time, hanging out with other Americans because all the students go home on weekends, watching TV or just talking because we have no money to go out. We do walk into town every now and then, and sometimes we attend a small group Bible study (when it's not canceled), and on Thursdays there's the CU and then Spring Hill afterward. Otherwise, there just really isn't much to do.

But we did celebrate Pi(e) Day on March 14th. Wow, I haven't even written since then. Failure. Anyway, I love pie, and so do most people, so we thought it would be fun to have a little celebration. Seeing as how in the States, March 14th is 3/14 which corresponds to our favorite mathematical term of pi, 3.14, we wanted to share our American holiday with everyone here. Erin's mom sent her some measuring cups (they use the metric system here) and pumpkin, and both of our mothers sent recipies for our favorite pies. We had trouble finding pans for the crusts, but eventually found some foil ones that kind of worked. Then we made our own crusts and five different kinds of pie: apple, pumpkin, pecan, strawberry, and banana cream. No one here has ever had pumpkin pie, so that was probably the most exciting to share.

In the end, there were only six of us there to share the pies, so we ate way too much. But it was delicious. I think I might still have a couple of pieces left, actually... The funniest part of the night was later on when we went to the Irish Music Night that the International Friends put on, they had pie there as well. I had to pass on that.

Other than Pi(e) Day, the most exciting thing that has happened in the month of March was St. Patrick's Day. We are in Ireland, so we figured we might as well hit Dublin for the biggest holiday over here. It's funny, because actually, people in Northern Ireland don't think St. Patrick's Day is a big deal at all. And they kept telling us that Dublin is really overrated for the holiday. But we went anyway with about 30 international students. It's about a four hour drive from Coleraine to Dublin, so we had to leave at 6 a.m. This put us in Dublin at around 10, and then we settled in to watch the parade at noon.

It was very very crowded, and people in Dublin definitely enjoy St. Patrick's Day. Everyone was dressed up, and everywhere you looked there was a sea of green. We managed to get a decent spot to watch the parade, though I felt like I was in some kind of mosh pit the entire time. We were packed in quite tightly. The parade started on Irish time, meaning it was about a half-hour late. But it was pretty neat. I thought it was funny how many high school marching bands from the U.S. were in the parade (one from Indiana and one from Florida, weird).

After the parade, we got some lunch and then decided to walk around and look for other things to do. There was supposedly some kind of fair area or something, but we couldn't find it. The art museum was also open, but we didn't know that. So we just walked through shops, and then at about five o'clock when we got cold and tired and just wanted to go home but had three more hours to kill, we found somewhere to eat and sit. Not a pub, because those were all packed. Next time we go somewhere, we need to make sure we know what we can do. But all-in-all, the day was fun. Now I can check that off my bucket list. I have been in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day.

I've had a lot of homework this month. I've written four papers already, and have another one due this week, so I need to work hard on that this weekend. Once that is done, I just have a presentation and three exams, and that is the extent of the rest of my work for the semester.

I'm getting excited for Easter Break. Mom is coming today (crazy!), and she, Erin, and I are going to do some traveling. So far the plan is to hit Scotland, England, and Wales, so we'll see if we stick to that plan. The second week of break, I am meeting up with some friends who are studying in London and we are going to Italy (if we ever get it planned out). It's too bad we didn't have a little bit longer or we could have tried to go more places, but it gets expensive to travel in Europe.

The First Excursion to Belfast

My traveling buddies, Erin on the left and Louise on the right.

The two cranes that built the Titanic (bet you didn't know it was built in Northern Ireland), Samson and Goliath.

One of the many artistic monuments in Belfast.

The clocktower.

Looking out at the city from the globe on top of Victoria Square.

I found a new friend, the big fish.

The globe (where we looked out at the city) all lit up at night. It changed colors too!

A picturesque moment on our way back to the train to go home.

This past weekend, we decided to visit Belfast. All that we had seen of the city was the train station as we made our way to the university, and so a jaunt around the capital sounded good. And so Erin, Louise, and I rolled out of bed early again on Saturday to catch the 10:15 train to Belfast.

The ride was not quite as exciting as the one to Londonderry. No ocean view this time, but it was still a nice ride. We got off at the very last stop, Victoria Street, which is right smack dab in the middle of the city. Since it was around noon when we arrived, we decided lunch would be first on the agenda.

We found Victoria Square pretty quickly, which is probably the nicest indoor/outdoor mall I have ever been in. There is a big glass dome at the top and you can see the whole city from it. After rejecting many restaurants for being too expensive, we settled on a little Italian joint that had a good lunch deal. Of course, halfway through the meal we realized that the deal was only on Monday to Friday, so we ended up spending more anyway. Oh well, we tried.

From lunch, we headed out into the city to explore. We decided to just take things easy since we would certainly be returning to Belfast soon (I didn't realize at the time, but that would be this weekend). Without a schedule or specific destinations in mind, we did what any college girls would do and found all the most exciting parts of the city, like the big fish and the musical grating thing and the whirlwind machine that you could spin. We took our obligatory photos of the architecture and the pay-toilets. We found a nice cathedral and admired the stained glass. Erin discovered a little store that sold used everything, and she bought me a little blue box keychain (it's from Doctor Who, for those who don't know). Then we headed back to the mall to walk around shops.

I guess we picked the mall with all the expensive shops, but it was fun to look at all the nice dresses and wish that we actually had money to buy them. I was on a mission to find a poster for my, as of yet, bare room. Louise took us to the movie theatre and we asked if they had any UK movie poster that we "American tourists" could take home with us. The lady was really nice and brought us a few, though none were incredible. I now have the poster from Australia hanging on my wall, even though I haven't seen that movie. The poster is pretty.

We ended off the day with Starbucks, where we sat at a checkers table and so, of course, had to find a way to play checkers. Just for your future reference, three-person checkers doesn't work. But we had fun trying.

We probably didn't even see half the city, but we had a really good time in Belfast. I took lots of photos, even though my camera insisted on dying half way through the day. And I'll be going back this weekend so hopefully we'll hit some different parts than we did last weekend.